Saturday, January 4, 2014

it's been four weeks since i broke my ankle. not quite halfway to recovery but better off than i was.

i'm spending a lot of time resting on the sofa or scooting around the house in my ikea office chair, wheelchair. scratching up floors like one might not do in a new house - unless worthy of some strange freedom. it's a little "journey around my room," around here. i stay on the first floor on the sofa looking towards the stairway. i've analyzed the banister rungs and wondered if the yellow wall was really so bad after all. i've pictured the exotic place called upstairs. i try to do some weaving although lack the motivation. never did working seem less appealing than when there is the time.

i write some for a small book.

i think about florida.

i've found my way onto every plant catalog mailing list without looking and so they arrive by the bundle each day. some days i scan some before stacking them under the gardening books towered on the side table bedside. i think a lot about my new garden- what i want to plant where and how i can be a more organized gardener than in years past. i read and re-read my friend kathryn'sweekend edibleblog (and the old one) and feel inspired by her thoughtful planning and produce. it's a comfort to know spring will come and i will walk again. i will plant herbs and flowers,voyage around my room in search of weeds to pull and bouquets to gather.

Friday, December 20, 2013

Friday, December 13, 2013

i fell last week on black ice while visiting family out west. of course, it happened moments after talking about walking and feeling good to be doing more of it. . and unfortunately, i suffered some pretty awful breaks in my ankle . . a subsequent hospital stay and surgery etc . . . and then we had to travel all the way back east with the cast and the swelling and the pain . .. it was tough.i'm still really happy i went on the trip though and got to be near some of my favorite people and stay in my favorite home. i was well taken care of out there and continue to be so now that were back. . . i'm pretty helpless and weak and still in tremendous pain. but i'm cozy too. things are different and will be . .i really appreciate all the orders that have been coming in but for now, i can't take or ship out orders as i have such limited strength and mobility. things will iron out over the next several weeks and i'll heal . . . just in time for spring gardening, let's hope.

Thursday, December 5, 2013

we left florida several weeks ago and are settling back into the northeast with family and friends. it's been a fairly bizarre year all around but a thoughtful one. the new house is old (again) with a lot of dark wood and original details. it's going to need some good tlc but it's got a lot of charm going for it . . .i'm beginning to think about planning the new garden which is bigger than the last. kind of exciting to start from scratch again.

Wednesday, July 24, 2013

i haven't been making too many of my usual flower bunches...but i've been playing some with a cecile daladier vase i got from anaise. i am happy to finally have one- they're definitely as special as they look. beautiful art objects on their own and so simple to add flowers to-i love that my kids can easily add all the flowers they find too..still a lot of roses going here on the balconies- mostly roses-

Wednesday, July 3, 2013

Wednesday, June 26, 2013

i've listed several of my new small weavings for sale in my big cartel shop today. (i will list a few more in two weeks.)some of the new weavings are made up flower patterns that remind me of fabric swatches . . . and the other series (is somewhat inspired by native american wall drawings) but mostly just based on my work cutting flowers i grow, setting the bunch on the table and then arranging them.

Sunday, May 19, 2013

Friday, May 17, 2013

i'm really enjoying growing roses. not sure why i didn't bring in more rose plants to my old yard but they're doing nicely here in the south. i've been getting them from heirloom roses and they seem like really solid & healthy plants when they arrive. it's a lot of watering each evening to keep three balconies full of plants going in 85 - 90 degree heat. so far so good though. everyone keeps telling me that the flowers won't live though the summer here but i don't believe it yet.

Monday, May 13, 2013

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

mostly keeping track of the flowers i'm growing & gathering here in florida over on my instagram feed ...there is an abundance of sweet peas right now,& really excited for the david austin roses that i recently potted. i haven't worked with roses much in the past few years but everything seems to thrive here in the heat and sunshine so i figure- why not grow some . when i was a florist in california we used to get the most incredible garden roses from this one woman.i can still picture when she showed up to the shop in her station wagon with buckets full of the thorniest roses and all these years later i can still smell them.

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

a good amount of flowers are blooming here and i had a little time to make a tiny bouquet yesterday. it's funny cutting flowers from pots on porches. several pieces of my artwork were taken / stolen in los angeles recently, where they had been on loan for something....kinda frustrating to think about but as my good son said, "you can make more, mom."

Thursday, March 14, 2013

four weeks since i left, three weeks since i got here, somewhat unpacked, somewhat sorted out & somewhat over thinking i'm a stranger a strange land but some things still are strange.

on a permanent vacation.

sitting on my sofa beside bright large windows touched by palm trees i read about my friends & snow drops rising, crocus soon and waiting for spring.i try not to think about what my bulbs are doing. i try to think about strawberry picking and baskets of fresh tomatoes - that's what is going on here like its no big deal.so i shoveled soil into pots last weekend on my small sun porches. felt like the hottest afternoon but it was only 70 something. we started some seeds and i'm waiting on plants from annies annuals. i'm ordering for a 10b zone now which many of my favorites will work in; i'm not going all tropical. can't get into it. so the kids here skateboard and surf and play catch with mangoes, oranges & coconuts. the beach is like paradise, soft sand, clear water, turquoise, calm, clean, peaceful... we walk twenty-five minutes to the park and twenty-five minutes back. we say the same sorts of things everyday like, " . . . oh my, you crazy florida drivers," and as we pass sweaty shirtless jogging men on our way home, we laugh.

Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Sunday, February 24, 2013

i left new jersey a little over a week ago. drove south some, had a really good lunch with a really good friend in virginia & then hopped on a sleeping train. little sleeping though- kept waking startled thinking i was on an airplane experiencing the worst turbulence- only to remember that it was a train, not a plane- such a relief!i love watching towns pass out the windows, southern states now northern ones. drove around some more until a few days ago when i got here to my new home in florida. my friends have taken good care of my spirits in all this. i had to leave that garden and i think about those days with dirt under my nails a lot. some tell me there's a new world of tropical flora to discover- .. i'm looking, & i kneel down to take pictures of flowers in parking lot medians on the way to buy $29.99 shower caddy's, $29.99 spice racks, and sheet sets; still miss the old one-i saw some wild blue morning glories tangled in a fence this morning and that's more my speed. & some weedy sort of coreopsis grows like dandelions. i find pieces of new jersey leaves and dried flowers in the residue of dirt as i pull clay pots from newsprint stuffed boxes. kristen found gulf coast & southern florida wildflower seed mix for me. i'll mix pinches of it with new soil in old pots. pots i grew sweet peas and bachelor's buttons in. last summer/ summer beforeanother life.this afternoon i collected seashells on the beach like my grandmother used to. she kept glass jars of them. i'll press them into patterns around the new plants (in old clay pots) for my yellow stucco, white stuccosun porch/ garden